[excerpts] ...

Being kitchen laundress was not without its problems and rewards. The cooks soon discovered that the people ate the soup or stew better if they found no clue as to where the flavor came from. So they put all the “stuff’ in flour sacks, boiled out the flavor, then discarded the “stuff’ before serving the food. It was our job to wash these dirty, greasy, smelly meat sacks as well as kitchen aprons and towels. At least we had hot water to do it with, though at times soap was scarce. Because I had to go to the quarters office later in the morning, I usually did the kitchen laundry between 4:30 and 6:00 in the morning.

It was not very easy in a dormitory with so many others, to find a quiet corner for private devotions. But I discovered that my Lord didn’t mind if I talked to Him while bent over a wooden washtub and a wooden washboard trying to get kitchen “linens” clean. His ear was open to the cry of His child as I looked up into the clear China sky and asked my Father to supply needed grace and strength for the day and to bring glory to himself through my life that day. What sweet communion and fellowship we enjoyed together in those early morning hours!

[excerpt] ...

Food—Japanese Issue

Food was a major subject of discussion even if the conversation had begun on an entirely different topic. Many hours were consumed telling each other what we would order if we could have anything we wanted. The long list included steak, ham, southern fried chicken, ice cream, hamburger, choco‐ late milk shakes, and even the lowly hot dog. While food was never in abundance, there never was a day when we didn’t have something edible to eat. I say “edible” because many in civilian concentration and prisoner of war camps had to eat things we do not consider edible. We were very fortunate in our camp because we were not in a war area, and supplies could be purchased from the Chinese farmers and merchants. Toward the end of the war even these supplies dwindled drastically. Yet, I am told we had more to eat than the people in Japan, and even more than their military.

There were four main sources of our food. Major and basic was the Japanese issue of food which was delivered to our supplies committee and distributed to each of the three kitchens (only two after the Italians came) and the hospital diet kitchen. By common agreement the diet kitchen had first claim to the supplies needed by the patients in the hos‐ pital or those on special diet by doctor’s orders. Storekeep‐ ers in each kitchen kept close watch over the supplies, espe‐ cially the oil and sugar.

For nine months those of us from Peking enjoyed the family like intimacy of Kitchen III. Since there were only about 300 served from our kitchen, it was possible to make good use of the supplies, making special dishes (even fried hamburger) not possible in the larger kitchens. These special advantages disappeared when in January, 1944, our beloved Kitchen III was turned over to about 100 Italians who were brought into camp and segregated in the area next to the main guardhouse. We became a part of Kitchen I and col‐ lected our food along with 800 others.

Breakfast usually consisted of lu dou (a type of bean) or kao hang (grain) ce‐ real and, in the later days, bread porridge made from old bread with very little seasoning. There was no milk or sugar for the cereal unless you had your own private supply. And there was bread. Many ate at the bare tables in the dining room, but others, especially the families, preferred to collect their food in tiered containers and eat in the privacy of their own rooms. In our dormitory we often collected our food too, especially if we had some peanut oil in which to produce “fried bread” on our makeshift stove. It was better than dry bread. Butter or margarine was not a part of our regular issue. When it did come, it was some‐ times full of straw and mold, fit only for kitchen use.

Lunch was the main meal of the day—usually stew unless the cooking team was willing to go to a lot of extra work to produce a “dry” meal with braised meat, fried potatoes, and gravy on the side. We were fortunate to have men and women on our Kitchen I cooking teams who were willing to put forth this extra effort.

Supper was usually soup and bread.

During the first year, supplies of meat and vegetables were fairly adequate. Extra issues of flour, besides what was necessary for the 400 loaves of bread a day, made it possible to make extra food like noodles, or even shepherd’s pies (meat pies) and a meat dumpling made by the Russian ladies in our kitchen. The patrons of our kitchen voted to leave our small ration of sugar (a tablespoon a week perhaps) in the kitchen so the cooks could make desserts. These extras called for volunteer help, but always willing hands were found to turn out delicious shortbread, cakes, date tarts, and even gingerbread. Those were really high days when a special dessert was served. I thoroughly enjoyed being on these special teams to produce such delicacies.

The first Christmas in camp was not without its very special food. When our committee explained to the commandant that Christmas was the major holiday of the Western world, comparable to the Japanese New Year, he went all out to bring in extra supplies for a real Christmas feast: pork roast, ham, oranges, and extra supplies of sugar to make dessert. We deeply appreciated these special concessions.

The cooking teams usually worked every third day. We soon knew what to expect when certain cooking teams were “on.” Besides the cooks, many supporting teams were needed. There were the vegetable crews, made up mostly of women and older men who washed and prepared vegeta‐ bles in large tubs. There were the butchers who prepared the meat (when we had it), according to the chief cook’s specifications. The stokers were men who had the responsi‐ bility of keeping the fires going under the big food cauldrons as well as the boiling water for tea and drinking. The stokers made their own coal balls or bricks.

The serving teams portioned out the food as the internees came along in a cafeteria like line. The dishwashing teams washed the tin plates, bowls, and “cutlery” of those who ate in the dining room. There were usually three on a team, each manning a pan: the initial rinse, the soap‐and‐water wash, and the final rinse. If your dishes were dried, you did it yourself.

The bakery teams were indispensable. Their job was de‐ manding, but the bread was unusually good as long as the good yeast lasted.

There were those, too, who worked “overtime” to bake the shepherd’s pies and desserts.

One great need was milk for the children. When con‐ fronted with this request, our commandant arranged to get cow’s milk brought in, which was properly sterilized in our hospital kitchen and distributed to families with children three years old and under. Sometimes there was just a small amount in the bottom of a cup, but at least an effort was made to supply the need for fresh milk for the children.

The Canteen

The canteen was another important source of food.

Pomelos (a type of grapefruit) were very popular, especially for making marmalade if we could find the sugar. Apples and pears came in season. Nothing was wasted. The peelings and cores, if we didn’t eat them, found their way into a large crock in our room to make vinegar. There was the inevitable maggoty stage, but the end product was well worth the process. Peanuts became peanut butter if a meat grinder was available.

On one occasion oranges came in. There were not enough to go around, so quotas were established. Our dormitory of 14 women received three oranges. We drew straws to determine the lucky ones to get the oranges. The winners were happy but very generous. They divided the oranges among the rest of us so we all had a taste.

The Black Market

Another source of our food was the black market which operated over the wall in broad daylight or in the middle of the night, depending on where the Japanese guards happened to be. Hundreds of pounds of sugar, peanuts, jam, and soybean paste came over the wall as well as eggs and sometimes chickens. Until discovered, the black market, car‐ ried on mostly by the Catholic priests and monks, was most productive.



The time of evening prayers was an especially good time for black marketeers who knelt along the wall near the hos‐ pital, saying their prayers. The story went the rounds about one Trappist monk who devised an ingenious scheme to get Black market ... eggs. He removed a few bricks in the lower part of the wall and, “kneeling in prayer,” received dozens of eggs and hid them under his robe. One day a Japanese guard became brave enough to lift up the monk’s robe. He found 150 eggs!

Everyone in camp was greatly concerned about what the punishment would be. Would he be tortured? Would he be shot? It was with great relief and shouts of delight that the internees greeted the announcement of the sentence—one and a half months in solitary confinement.

For a Trappist monk who had spent 25 years in the same monastery and had not spoken more than four or five words to a living soul during that time, this was a light sentence indeed! I am sure the Japanese were baffled by the hilarious reaction of the crowd and the joyous singing of the monk as he was led off to his cell in the “out of bounds” section of the camp. Another missionary (Protestant) who had been successful in getting things over the wall, was taken to the guardhouse for questioning. Being a Christian, he admitted that he had engaged in the black market, even though he was not caught in the act. Word spread quickly that he was being questioned. Friends went to his “house” (his 9 x 12 room) and whisked away all visible evidence of the black market and hid it in their own rooms. With nothing specific to go on, the Japanese gave him a lighter sentence of only two weeks in solitary. Besides, his wife was permitted to take his meals to him twice a day.

The kitchen prepared special food, and those of us who had obtained black market supplies from him, made cookies to send to him. The result was that he weighed 10 pounds heavier when he came out than when he went in! He told us that one of the guards had whispered to him that he was a Christian and discreetly left to give him and his wife a few minutes alone. Another guard later came by his room and delivered sugar and eggs “for his little girl” (three years old). Our Japanese guards missed their own children whom they loved dearly, and expressed that love to the children in camp.

The black market was financed through a companion black market in money carried on by just a few men in camp. The Chinese merchants and farmers seemed perfectly happy to take promissory notes for British sterling or U.S. gold, to be paid after the war.

Unfortunately two Chinese farmers were caught in black marketing. To the horror of the internees, the farmers faced a firing squad within hearing distance of the camp.

It was reliably reported that in time a new chief of guards succeeded in gaining control of the lucrative black market; so the black market in goods and money continued, but in Japanese hands.

#

[further reading]
http://weihsien-paintings.org/books/KeptInSafeguard-MaryScott/MaryScott(web).pdf

#